Caravan Romance
by SevenSi
Summary: The Lone Wanderer finds love in the wastes, loses love, finds it again and wants to make sure it never gets lost again. Sargeant RL-13, dogmeat, Charon, Crazy Wolfgang, Sydney, female Lone Wanderer Crazy humour and Neutral to Evil main OC. Fall out 3 background, crossover to Fallout Vegas. It's M for a reason, with violence and disturbing stuff.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One, The Lovers**

Crazy Wolfgang will be arriving any moment now…..

An hour had passed, and the sun was coming up over Megaton. He said he'd be there, along with his Brahmin pack and his hired caravan guard. She stood there, nearly praying that nothing had happened along the way. He had such a dangerous job, this travelling salesman thing along the wastes. It would have been a safer world had it been Pre-War, just how she decorated her home in Megaton.

Her faithful hound, dogmeat sat by her, and Megaton's securitron was advertising to go to Moriarity's for a cool, refreshing drink. She had her other loyal companions, Sargeant whom she bought one thousand caps and being free of either really good or really evil, she remained neutral to most things. Charon was the only one she got by killing the poor lady ghoul back in the Museum of History, where ghouls lived safely behind a behemoth of packed super mutants and crazed Talon mercenaries, who would do anything for caps.

Another hour had passed and the coughing, homeless Nicky begged for more purified water. "I'm sorry, Nicky, I only have dirty water," she told him for the hundredth time. Her very own guard robot in her megaton home gave out five purified waters once a week and the week hasn't been up yet. She heaved another sigh, ready to go back in and make travel for the Republic of Dave. She promised Dave that she'd help him with votes. Not that he needed it really.

They called her the Lone Wanderer, though three-dog used to call her the Vault 101 crazy chick, then relegated her to that Lone name. Although for the life of her, she had three trusty companions, and Sydney who she picked up accidently on the way out of Rivet City. Said she was going to get a ton of caps for this document but she wanted to team up with me and my buddies. The caps would only go to me and her since my dog, the robot, and Charon were only with me for protection. She was probably tired to waiting back at my home, drinking coffee and resting up with a pre-war book on my pre-war sofa in the 2nd room she owned.

But Crazy was there. His tousled dark hair and the eye-glasses the wanderer gave him, made him look boyish. With his boyish grin, the leather armor fit well on him, his arms toned and brown from the day to day sun made his exposed skin look as leathery as his suit. She insisted the first time she met him at Agatha's house that he wear a hat, something to ward off the sun from his eyes, and Agatha insisted as well. He gave in, to one old lonely lady in the middle of nowhere and the female Lone wanderer who could never take sides. So, a pre-war hat and a pair of eye-glasses was what he dragged on him.

"Crazy Wolfgang, at your service, ma'am."

"I hate it when you call me ma'am." She said to him, not realizing her impish smile made him grin wider. Then she slapped him on the arm, playfully and a bit harder than she intended.

"Where the hell were you? I've been waiting! You said you'd be here over two hours ago."

"Raiders. Super Mutants, radscorpions, you name it." He shrugged, yet smiled, "But hey, care to make a trade?"

"Yes. Please. I've got lots to turn in. Raider suits, assault rifles, newly repaired just for you," she said with a smile, her green eyes twinkled in the sun. "Are you and your caravan guard going to sit out here for the next hour or so? Or are you going in for a drink inside Megaton?"

They usually stopped at a place for an hour and then moved on, and as dangerous as the wastes was, they had stealth boys to help them during the day and night when it got extremely hazardous out there – for example, their perception skills help them see Deathclaws from miles away. They manage to run the other way, making their path to the next destination quicker than usual. Thankfully deathclaws aren't as rampant on their routes as they're mostly far north in Old Olney, and the caravans only go as far as Temple of the Union where the escaped slaves hide out.

"Maybe." He said, "how have you been doing, Princess?" he called her that name because her name was the Princess of the Wastes. That's what Agatha called her and then dubbed her that on the radio when she recorded one of her violin pieces. All across the air waves, the Lone wanderer and the Princess of the Wastes. Crazy liked the latter and called her the royalty dub and perhaps he did it as a joke.

"Maybe?" She shook her head, "It's hot, and you look dusty and dirty and I've got an Iced cold Nuka Cola for you inside, Wolf."

"Um, are your companions going in?" He shifted his eyes towards the three standing there with her.

"Well, your caravan guard can have a drink over at Moriarity´s or sit and eat at the Brass Lantern if he so pleases, my treat.`

`I like how you think, Princess.`

This was how it was a few times a week, when they could manage, the few stolen moments between the Crazy Caravan guard who sold junk and called it high quality leftovers, and the Princess of the Wastes. She told Sydney to get lost for an hour, sent her over to the Brass lantern to chat up with Leo Stahl who was addicted to mentats and jet. And Sydney shook her head, whispered over to her, `Girl, you have got to stop picking up these guys, especially ones who sell junk and crap.` she rolled her eyes and lastly said, `I´ll be at the Brass when you need me. Come on, you three,` Sydney ordered the stiff necked ghoulish Charon, wearing his Power armour and power helmet proudly which covered up his rotting glesh, Sydney then snapped her fingers at Dogmeat who whined and whimpered over waiting for her master, and the highly weaponized robot who stood at attention.

When they were alone, she grabbed him fiercely and roughly shoved his leather armour off of him. He laughed, and chuckled softly against her ears, `Hey, hey, these are priceless you know, you gave them to me,`

`Oh hush, she said to him huskily, `we´ve only got an hour, since you so insist on leaving and can´t push it to two.

`Ive got a deadline, Princess. But for you, anything….for this hour.` He told her, sinking his roughened hands in her long blonde tresses, his chapped lips kissing her soft skin, `god, this wasteland is full of crap, like the junk I carry, but you, god, you princess, you make it all worthwhile.`

She slammed the door shut to her room, just in case her maintenance robot decided to do a little peeking. And they rolled on the bed, her breasts cupped eagerly by his large hands, the bandages around his palm were splattered with dried blood, and his skin was dusty and dirty, but she didn't care. They didn't have time for a bath, and she noted he took the time to chew on sweetened gum drops and mints, his tongue pushed softly into her moaning mouth. Her arms went round his shoulders and neck, and her naked legs wrapped around his waist, shoving her hips forward. He grabbed hold of her hips to slow her down, `Easy, easy there, Princess he said, his voice so rough, she could barely recognize, and she was dazed with love for this caravan trader, who slipped inside her almost too roughly filling her until she moaned loudly, her head hung back as he rocked into her back and forth into the bed. `Oh yes, oh yes, I missed this so much, baby.` he told her over and over again, as he kissed her neck, her shoulders, her lips.

When they were done, she was heaving with exhaustion and he exhaled, `Damn, it´s so good everytime, baby, I wish I could just stay here with you in Megaton, all night, until the next day.`

`tease.` she said with a saddened note in her voice, `you know you won´t. You´ll be out there with your Brahmin heading out to Agatha´s house, or maybe visiting the escaped slaves at Temple of the Union, and stopping at Uncle Roe´s at Canterbury.`

`I have to, Princess, I made a deal with the devil of the wastes.`

`Oh….and who is that then…`

`No one in particular. Just a promise to myself to get my business going and a promise to all my customers.`

`Bullshit.`

`Now now, Princess, no need to get all angry.`

`All for caps right is that it, just caps and then what, you are going to be lying on some dirt ditch where Super mutants have laid your body to rest to eat at your brains or mutilated guts or worse, deathclaws ravaged you and your caravan guard, along with your precious Brahmin pack, and then i´ll never see you again.`

He shook his head, `You sure know how to make my future death so appealing,` He got up and picked up his clothes, `Listen, I don't want to fight, we do this all the time we get done doing the deed.`

`Oh I see. So it´s doing the deed!` She huffed, pulled her own mercenary charmer clothes over herself, over her naked breasts, buttoning her front, the light tresses falling over her shoulders and his hand stopped her, `Hush, I don't want to fight this time. You know how it is, I´ll be back again this week and we´ll be right here again.`

`What if we won´t, Wolf, then what happens to us…to …` her voice stopped, and he leaned over to kiss her.

`I have a little time to stop over at Doc Church´s to drop some supplies and then grab a quick snack at the Brass.` He pulled his worn out boots over his feet, tying the laces around his ankled pant hem. `I´ve got some motorcycle handbrakes and gastanks for your schematics, baby.`

`I´ve got enough, don't want it. Sell it to someone else.` She waved him away.

`Aww don't be like that, he said, but saw she was in no mood, except to be stubborn and surley so he quietly made his way down the stairs, heard him greet her maintenance robot and the door closed clicked as he went outside.

Sydney came back inside, knocked on the door to her bedroom, sat down at the desk, and ignored the ruffled bed, where the Wanderer had made some sheets for it, a couple of pillows and a teddy bear lying at the foot of the bed.

`Guess he´s off to god knows where again, huh….well, cheer up, we both need to stay focused, and after we make our caps, and get Abraham his documents, everything will be okay.`

`I guess so.`

Sydney huffed, `See, that is why I do NOT get involved with men and especially men whose business is in the caravan trading. They´ll leave you for a hundred caps.` Sydney then caressed the hand made weapon she carried, `This is my only sweetheart.`


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter two, Heading out**

Megaton was a place of security, and not the prettiest place to live. But it's safe, and definitely after the Lone Wanderer had detonated the bomb which sat in the middle of the city, the wastelanders kept on coming. They came with dirty faces and few pockets of caps, asking for room and board. They were mostly sent to find a bed or a place to sleep at the Common house, which was already crowded, or if they had a few extra caps to find a decent bed at Moriarity's.

The few that were sent away, tried to walk towards the northeastern side of the world, for they heard of the dangers of deathclaws to the west and the even common dangers of giant radscorpions and yaoi guai that roamned the mountains. These days, the yaoi guai travelled in pairs, as the rocky roads were paved with greater dangers than raiders and radscorpions. Raiders braved the wastes because they were too cracked up on jet and psycho, armed with their raider suits, assault rifles and baseball bats, they could take down a couple of radscorpions easily, even a couple super mutants were in danger of a pack of raiders.

Miss Princess of the Wastes got ready to trek the mountains to search for power connection, this was her quest aside from three-dogs and Sydney's. Her temporary companion was allright with the deal so long as Sydney got a seventy percent of the cut from Abraham's reward. The lone wanderer agreed, and offered all of it if her temporary companion could come and finish off a couple of quests with her before making her difficult one in the middle of the capital.

Sydney thought the wanderer was crazy, to give up all those caps so long as she travelled and was fed and was offered a safe bed at her Megaton home.

"So what about when we're out on the road and stuff? Who's gonna cook?" Sydney joked, looking over at the ghoul in the Power Armor. "Does he even say anything?"

"Not really, but as long as I have his contract, he's mine."

"Mmmmm sounds kinky."

"It's not like that." The wanderer rolled her eyes, pocketing her shotgun ammo and missile launcher onto her back, but Charon came up to offer his assistance, for it looked too heavy for the waste Princess.

"It's allright, Charon."

"I insist, I'm very good with big guns and it's no bother, plus this power armor you gave me, helps me carry 2x my weight."

He sounded like the Sargeant, all robotic and mechanical. Sydney eyed her too, "You better do as he says, you can carry grenades."

"I'm not much of an explosive expert though." She shrugged, "But big guns I can handle. Lucky Harith gave me a couple mini nukes for my fatman."

"Ahhh so you got a fatman. I heard about those things." Sydney adjusted her pre-war bonnet, wondering how in the sam hill she was talked into wearing these blasted things. But it provided a long cover from the hot sun, and even warded off the blood splatters from the super mutants they splayed along the way out of Rivet city. One was waiting for them below the city, with his assault rifle trying to gun down Lucky Harith and his Brahmin, but Lucky and his female caravan guard shot him down.

"A lone wanderer needs a weapon in these times," he told her, giving her a free mini nuke, and giving her a good price on the second.

She remembered that day, like it was yesterday and the talon mercenary men kept waiting to ambush her at every metro station. They kept calling her a goody two shoes from the vault, and she showed them a thing or two about being goody two shoes.

"Yeah?! Yeah… you want some of this?" She shoved two barrels down one talon mercenary's throat and the blasted the other two with the Lincoln repeater. Such a handy rifle, that she didn't even need a pistol anymore.

"So what's our mission again?" Sydney asked, as the five of them walked down the hill towards the southwest, it was getting dark soon, and the wanderer reminded everyone of the Power that needed to be turned on. She had managed to get to a few already, the ones close to Arefu, and Jury street, now they had to go further, and further, past the tall rising building of Tenpenny Tower. Sydney was getting anxious, "you know, I've never been to TenPenny, heard about it a lot, about how gorgeous it is, a Pre-war building restored, so clean and plenty to eat, a place where only the privilege get live. Is it even possible for us to even visit inside?"

"I'm surprised you even want to stop at a place like that."

"Yeah you're right, probably a bunch of snooty ass hoity toity rich people, not a care in the world either. While everyone else is getting eaten by mutants, mutiliated by raiders, or ravaged by deathclaws, stung to death by radscorpions or just dying in the wastes, irradiated beyond help."

"You're so positive." The lone wanderer replied with cynicism.

"And you're looking a hell of a lot better than yesterday when what's his name stopped by. You know, other girls would be waiting by Megaton day after day for that crazy caravan travelling junksman to come back around…..like a sailor out to sea docking at every bay and finding his arms filled with exotic women."

"you've been reading those pre-war books haven't you?"

Sargeant's voice boomed out from the back, "Searching for targets, commander!"

Charon's muttering voice was stifled in his power helmet, the missile launcher secure on his back, whilst his combat shotgun was by his side, armed and ready. Dogmeat ran happily by his master's side.

They passed through a few broken bridges, rocks tumbled over it, and ravaged by weight and time, the indication of raiders was apparent as the half body of a mercenary was strung up in chains and spikes, blood and gore everywhere along the bridge's walls.

Charon's perception was clear, "Found you!" Pulling out the missile launcher and loading it with ammo, noted instantly it was way too close to fire, and quickly switched to his shotgun. Sargeant RL-3 did his usual sing-song:

""_There's nothing I like better than making some other poor bastard die for his country!_"

Raider ambush! Two women in spiked raider suits came shooting with Chinese pistols and an assault rifle, the raider hidden behind the rocks wore a a raider tick helmet and came cackling out with his combat shotgun. The Wanderer took shots at him first, then VATS on the other across the bridge, with his grenade ready to throw. She made sure it wasn't going to make it out of his hand as she made a precise hit at the grenade first, making it blow up immediately and his body splattered across the ground. The women screamed, "Die! Die! Die! Come on, you bitch!"

They were definitely psycho'ed up and it took them a few rounds to get them killed as Sarge's inaccurage plasma shots fired, and dogmeat chewed on the leg of the raider's not letting go, Charon and Sydney lined up their bullets and kept on firing.

When it was done, they picked up the remaining gear, packed up what they could carry, and the Lone Wanderer managed to repair a few. There was a campsite under the bridge, and the radiated water was close. There was a shack nearby and a medkit. Ammo caches were hidden behind the shack, and there they could sit for a spell, filling up their bottles of dirty water.

Sydney drank up the rest of her ice cold nuka cola, "god, I hate raiders. They don't bathe and all they do is rape and pillage, they're just as bad as Super mutants. This world sucks."

The lone wanderer sat next to her dog, and dogmeat laid his head along the wanderer's lap. She gave him some iguana bits that were in the backpack, and he happily ate it up, drank some dirty water, and satisfied rested against her.

Sargeant was so busy making his rounds around the small campsite, loudly saying how he is on the lookout for intruders. "Yeah you do that, Sarge," she smiled, giving him a salute.

She looked over at Charon, "Are you hungry?"

"I ate back at Megaton."

"Yeah but that was this morning when we left. It's almost night." She pulled out some dandy apples and a couple of Brahmin steaks for him, "come on, you earned it. Two Brahmin steaks!"

He grumbled and pulled off his power helmet, started to chew on the steaks and washed it down with dirty water.

"Sorry, didn't bring enough nuka colas. But maybe I'll find some along the way. There's plenty of radiated water, which heals you by the way."

He shrugged, "are we spending the night here? There maybe danger …."

"There's danger everywhere…but no, just an hour and then we're heading past the Nuka Cola factory. We're not going inside though. Heard there were mirelurks inside and we aren't armed well enough for them to get us in close quarters. Far away, yes, we can get them but close range, not so good."

"I shall follow." He muttered in a soft breath.

Sydney scooted closer to the wanderer, "You know, isn't it kind of creepy?"

"What's creepy? That we're eating under a mutiliated body or that you're scooting closer to me eating under a mutiliated body?"

"No, I mean, your companion Charon…he seems to like you."

"Um…like as in like me as a person and friend?"

"Well, I get the feeling he likes you like really likes you. Maybe as much as Crazy does."

"Oh hey now!"

"Not into ghouls?" She whispered.

"Not really, no."

The Lone wanderer huffed, "Besides what makes you think that?"

"Everytime you're alone with Crazy he gets agitated, he roams back and forth, like he wants to kill something. Saw him do that each and every time. Even Andy Stahl at the Brass Lantern told him to settle down since he's gonna disrupt his customers. Luckily he's got the power armor on so people don't get a good look at his….you know, looks."

"People all over the wastes have prejudice." The Wanderer shrugged.

"Well, whatever, Im gonna get a half hour shut eye and then we'll head past the factory and maybe they have some place for us to rest at Andale."

They looked at the map, where Andale sat, there were ravaged homes around, but three houses were still intact, and a sturdy shack behind one house. People were still living there they heard but some never made it back out of Andale. There were rumours that once you go to Andale you can never leave. Probably gossip and rumours so there would be less wastelands looking for a place to live and settle. It happens a lot along the wasteland, just like where Megaton and Rivet City were places wasters wanted to live, away from the hazardous wasteland. Rivet city was too far, and super mutants inhabited the routes along the way so that by the time you got there you were either dead or were hidden in one of the caravan trader's pack Brahmin. Those were the only possible routes safe to get there, to travel with the traders, because they knew the roads like the back of their hand and where the mutants and raiders hid. They could make a backtrack and take back routes which take an hour longer to their destination but at least the goods got there that day.

"You think they are rumours, Sydney?" The lone wanderer asked hesistantly.

"Andale?"

Her companion shrugged, "Don't know. Lots of places make up stuff. We'll see when we get there. If there's a bed and bath, I'm getting first dibs. I feel disgusting." She wiped off the clinging dirty off her suit, and she was afraid she'd get as deep dirty as the raider women. They looked like they never bathe.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three, The Past and the Present**

They headed out to Andale, just when the sun was drowning into the ocean of radiation, colouring the world orange and neon blue, almost as pretty as a nuclear aurora, but there was nothing like that in this world. Nothing beautiful and peaceful existed, and the wanderer accepted this, because her Lincoln Repeater, her companions and the thousands of caps she had turned in for pre-war books, and trading in raider suits and weapons she was in excess of, made her a very very rich young woman. These simple things in life, are what drives her every day. If she stopped in at TenPenny they wouldn't turn her out, not when she was a walking pile of caps.

Giant Radscorpions sat atop from a peaked mountain, a long distance from them, her pre-war hat she wore aided the spot where they huddled together. She brought her rifle up and used VATS, then started shooting, bringing their health down, and the rest – her companions finished them off. The rest of the day was uninterrupted as yao guai didn't disturb her, she was a friend to the animals, mole rats and sewer rats alike. They even came to her rescue when she was in trouble, but she didn't need it. Once, they came when when she didn't want them to rescue her, as they were killing other wastelanders and all she could do was watch; she was more friendly to animals than wastelanders. It is how it is. They wanted nothing to do with her – other wasters, told her angrily to get lost, that they want no trouble. But when super mutants came, she still saved their asses.

Sydney looked at their map, "We are almost there." Then she looked up, saw the red rocket and nodded, "yep, gas station up ahead, that's Andale."

It was already dark, and they couldn't find any available open beds around the exposed houses where debris scattered, there were a few severely broken and stained bathtubs, incredibly good conditioned dressers, and some closets which contained a couple dirty pre-war business attires. Funnily, it helped her look spiffy and people seem to take to her when she talked when wearing it. She went ahead and told Charon to go and pick up some of the miscellaneous items around.

There were three houses, one smaller and the other two a double decker, and upon knocking, a man in pre-war attire, wearing eye-glasses and a clean cut smile greeted her, "welcome, visitor, welcome to Andale! Come in, come in, we don't get much visitors out here, but when we do, we are happy to oblige."

The wanderer was a little taken aback, as she wasn't expecting such extreme friendliness. After all, wastelanders were rude, ignorant and full of greed, as they'd steal your caps behind your back or kill you for ten purified waters but this, this was unexpected. What were the rumours again?

"Um, thanks, we just want to rest up as we've been travelling for a couple hours, past Nuka Cola factory, so hopefully we aren't intruding?"

He waved his hand away, "Pfff, not at all, oh where are my manners, I'm Jack Smith, and this is my lovely wife and son, Linda and Junior. And please, sit around the table in the kitchen, we have plenty to eat, and plenty more for visitors stopping by. It's dinner time."

"Uh wow," Sydney interrupted, looking around the two story house, "You all are so friendly, I've never been to a town like this before, as all towns consider shoot first policies so common."

Jack Smith laughed, a very fake kind of laugh, but the wanderer ignored it, turning away. She walked around the kitchen, looking around, noted that everything seemed to look the same in all houses, but these houses are in better condition than the ones in Grayditch, or the ones that were scattered across the capital, like Dupont and L'enfant square. Mostly malls and office buildings, though the few houses still contain pre-war furniture.

It looked like they had only enough room for her and Sydney at the table, and there was strange meat on top of their dinner plates, the boy wore a baseball cap and looked strangely at them, "Gee, we never get visitors to stay, they always come by but they don't stay."

"Oh hush now, Junior, don't be rude to the ladies, come now, sit here by us," beckoned Linda Smith, who looked interestingly clean and well mannered, the abundance of strange meat on the middle of the table with large serving spoons laid next to them, and there was nuka cola and dirty water by each plate.

"I'm dying for a nuka cola," chimed Sydney, "but hey you folks don't seem to mind if I do," and helped herself to a drink..

Linda Smith beamed happily, placing her hands together, looking quite eager, "Ha ha ha, I'm sure you are just dying to taste one of my homemade stews, it's quite delicious, come come, and taste it."

The wanderer shook her head, she didn't like strange meat, and knew instantly that it was human food. Sydney hadn't encountered them, but Charon and her had earlier before picking her up at Rivet City. Charon kept quiet as usual, but he wasn't tasting any of it either; they had remembered the hunters chasing a wastelander. When she had stopped them to ask what was going on, one hunter laughed and gave her a free strange meat on the house, telling her that it's the best meat she'll ever have. She put two and two together instantly, and shot the hunter dead, giving her instant good karma. She rolled her eyes at the good karma that felt over her skin and aura, but goddamn it all to hell, she wasn't about to allow a bunch of cannibals chasing down people like that. The other hunters started shooting back, their rifles were worn down from hunting humans and Charon finished them off. After picking up the supplies from their dead bodies, they still hauled off the strange meat that was on them to sell. Sometimes she wonders why she was such a hypocrite. She sighed inwardly. This world kind of makes you like that.

"Disgusting, isn't it?" she whispered to Charon. He said nothing…..my guardian ghoul lived a long time in this world, this wasted, irradiated world where he probably had seen worse. And the long months they had spent together, he never touched her, except that one time, placing his ghoulish skeletal hand on her shoulder, "It's not safe here…we should go…"

What did she know? She was a vault dweller, living in 101 where everything was handed to her on a silver platter, well – except for the bullies that wanted to keep bothering her, and in the end, those bullies owed them a lot, as she saved Butch's alcoholic mother from sure death. He even fell a little in love with her, giving her the jacket and had grabbed her tightly, whispering roughly how he had always liked her. It was the most awkward situation. But then, she was leaving the vault searching for dear dad then and had given up now, as those were so many months ago. The doctors at Rivet city were no help either. She didn't trust any of those bitches.

the wanderer left her dog and the robot outside, scanning for intruders. Sargeant hates being cooped up too, and as for dogmeat, it might have been too impolite to bring him in without asking. She shook her head, declined the invitation to the meal, "I'm afraid we'll have to pass, I'm not very hungry."

She didn't know if they were "hunters" like the ones her and Charon met up months ago, and they could very well be just buyers of this meat, and there was a suspicious locked basement behind the kitchen. Her skill in locks wasn't high enough so she was thinking of stealing the key from one of the residents.

Sydney whispered over to me that this entire town was creepy already.

"What gave that away?" the wanderer smirked, "the overtly friendly faces?"

So we left Andale and walked in the dark. There was a campful of raiders up ahead according to their snipers. There was nothing left to do, but go back to Andale and find shelter in one of the abandoned homes. They decided to make their way back stealthily but with Sargeant around, it was really difficult. A giant ball-sized robot hovering over barking that he was on duty searching for targets every so often didn't make him covert.

When the sun came up, it was 5 am and she was ready to head out to the power stations. They reached their destination, finishing off a few more radscorpions and some irritating protectons and thanked their lucky wasteland hides that no mister gutsy's showed up, they packed an incredible damage gauge to our health, in just two shots.

The wanderer laid down looking up at the stars on one evening while they were camped under a shack near the river's edge. They had to finish off a few mirelurks from afar and realized as they approached the shack that there were supplies that belonged to a scavenger. Poor bastard didn't stand a chance against these mirelurks. You can't fight them up close, unless one thinks of suicide by being sliced and pinched to death in a couple of blows.

It was amazing that there were still a few stars out, considering how the world is right now. And she managed to sleep incredibly well that night, right next to her companions, while dogmeat kept one eye and ears perked up for any intruders and Charon with his lack of sleep, Sargeant on duty twenty four seven. Sydney snored after downing a couple of nuka colas and stuffing down fancy lady snacks. "I hate this stuff," she said between chewing, "but i need the sugar."

"I'll get you some sugar bombs next time I talk to Jenny Stahl at the Lantern back at Megaton."

"Oh, no, those are just too much for me." She waved her hands, "I try to keep away from taking jet and taking too much sugar, but fancy lady snacks are just enough that it doesn't make me go on hyperdrive."

The wanderer said nothing and turned her back, laying her head on the makeshift folded Brahmin-skin suit. It was best not to say anything about her horrible addiction with Jet and Buffout. Again, she sighed inwardly and closed her eyes.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter four, Crazy Crazy love**

Megaton looked like a slice of heaven when they finally returned. As soon as she went home, closing the door behind her, she was itching to get out again. But hell, she stretched, ignored the caked blood on her boots. Right. Remember to get her boots cleaned by standing in the middle of the puddle next to the detonated bomb. Those crazy-ass preaching salvational followers of the atom bomb were still hovering around praising the damn thing. Her maintainance robot was so happy to see her return he wanted to spit out ten purified waters instead of five. Waving her hand away, she barked at him irritatedly, "go away! Shut the goddamn door you bag of scrap metal!" He ran off quickly and hid himself in the corner of the kitchen.

Of course she didn't mean to be so sharp with him, but it was the only way to get him to stop pestering her. She told Sydney and the others, barring dogmeat who was lying on the 2nd floor under the chem make-shift lab table to get the hell out and sleep at the Common room or find a bed at Moriarity's. Sydney was dead tired and horny, complained about how there wasn't enough men whores around for her to get some. Even that got her looking at the National Archived woman, "I am surprised at you. I thought you didn't like men."

Sydney placed her hand on her hip, "What? Cause I told you that my baby is my submachine gun here? Well that's true yes, but a girl's got to have some warm body loving too, and nope, no ghouls for me." She shifted her eyes at Charon, "Sorry Charon, you're just not my type."

He grumbled, "No offense taken. I'm not really into any of you humans."

"You're once human too!"

"Obviously I can live forever." He leaned against the lockers and folded his arms, the power armor made him look tall.

"Did I just hear Charon crack a joke?" The wanderer peeked around the corner from her room, "That's a first."

"Being around you two jabbering the whole time while enemies can hear you can be very influential." Okay so his voice was still gravelly and a bit grouchy, but it was hard to tell his expression behind that helmet.

"Shut up!" The wanderer smiled and then laughed, "You have got to be joking. Okay, no sleep, we're all going to Moriarity's and get rip roaring drunk!"

"Hey I'm still horny here. Do you think Leo Stahl or his brother Andy would give me a tussle?" Sydney joked, winking at the wanderer.

"Try Jericho! He's always up for free sex!" the wanderer howled with laughter, "Or if you have a high enough charm, DocChurch looks like he hasn't had any for awhile."

"You are such a bitch sometimes," huffed Sydney, not amused in the slightest, "Hey how about one of those handsome caravan men, you know, that very gentlemanly Crow guy? The one who sells you leather armour and power helmet stuff?"

"He's got a girlfriend! And you'd never guess who his girlfriend is!"

"that female short haired pixie looking caravan guard who looks more like he should be protecting her goods instead of her protecting his goods."

They both laughed, and Charon just harumped and cleared his throat, obviously finding some amusement from the banter of both young women.

"They probably stop at some recluse camp and get it on under the irradiated sky, her screaming, 'Ohhhh Crow, give it to me, give it to me! Give me some power armour for free!"

The lone wanderer rolled her eyes, "Ok, stop, that's enough. Seriously, Sydney, you do need to get laid. And if you really want Leo Stahl, he's easy. All you have to do is tell him about his stupid addiction with mentats and buffout and he's putty in your hands."

"The guy sounds like a winner." Sydney waved her hands away, "Naw, I was joking. I am however interested in Billy Creel."

"He's allright. He's got little Maggie to take care of, so if you play girlfriend to Creel, he might make you his part time momma to Maggie."

"Nope, don't want little brats hanging on my combat boots, no thank you. This woman is child-free and ready to take on any talon mercenary man one on one."

"Those guys are beyond insane. I swear, all they care about are caps. You talk about how merchants want caps, they're different. Now these mercenaries are just immoral fucks. They'd as soon rape you as much as a high ranking raider would. They just keep cleaner than your cracked out wasted raider."

Music came on, playing, _I just want to set the world on fire. _

Charon went into the kitchen and grabbed himself some mirelurk cakes. The fridge was packed, but no matter how much they put in there, it would hold it no matter what.

"Ohhh shit, I've got a terrible headache…I gotta lie down a bit." the lone wanderer hopped on the bed, facing the ceiling, the back of her hand over her forehead, feeling the wave of her addiction stinging her, minus one constitution. She was going to wait until her chem. Lab finished brewing and then she'll cure herself. The feeling of wanting some more jet was riding over her body and the shakes she was getting was a kind of pestering annoyance. Nothing but another swallow of jet will help but she wanted to save them for later, when she was encountered enemies, not for play like that dumb ass Paulie Cantelli.

Sydney and Charon made their way to Moriarity's for the night and allowed their companion some respite. Dogmeat slept blissfully under the chemistry lab table, never needing to keep his ears or eyes peeled for intruders. He knew this was their safe home, and Sargeant was outside next to Deputy ward, Megaton's securitron, scanning for enemies.

When Crazy Wolfgang came back, it was so late, and he was days late. He had Crow take over for the past week. It was always like this, Crow takes his rounds, then Lucky Harith and then occasionally she'd see the good doctor who sold chems by the handful. She wondered if the good ole' chem. Doc noticed how addicted she was to a few of his goods. She was sure he knew, he's not stupid as he brought more than usual for her. Goddammit all, the fair-haired wanderer cursed beneath her breath, nothing was secret for her and she was kind of revengeful and spiteful about it too, selling him a ton of miscellaneous items. Then rewarding him with a couple of fully repaired weapons he might need when he left Megaton. Talk about double standards, she can't live without the chems and gets angry that he sells it to her at a discounted price.

Her addiction wasn't the only one in Megaton, as Leo Stahl obviously was hiding his from his siblings. She found out by charming the cranky Megaton doc church, he was so easy to charm too. Gave her free stimpaks for nothing and sometimes healed her addictions for nothing. But there were days when he was just so unruly from having to patch up so many wastelanders coming in from the wastes, aside from old man Nathan's rheumatisms and talks of the Enclaves, it brought his mood to a idiosyncratic personage. Still, she stole his medkits behind his back.

As for some noted residents, Jericho bugged her a lot, as he was like that with the young women in Megaton. He spent his caps occasionally at Gobs and liked to give Nova a tumble or two, but he really wanted to give Jenny Stahl a hard time, and when the wanderer came to Megaton, fixing up that bomb he was upset at her goody two shoes personality and at the same time, can't help himself – he liked to look at her a little too much. Jenny usually ignored it and sold him his usual lunch everyday. She claims that Megaton is one of the safest places to live, and that she was tired of people complaining about how awful it is here.

Although, when the wanderer wanted to do something really really bad and did like to do that at times, Jericho liked that a lot but she'd never have him accompany her out in the wastes. She can't trust him, and she'd never trust herself either.

Wolfgang had keys to her Megaton home, and residents and a few wasters already know she was his girlfriend, it was fast becoming common knowledge, thanks for Three dog and his big mouth. Nothing was secret if you told the DJ of the wastes anything.

"Hey," he whispered, touching her damp forehead, had walked in to her room and sat on the bed, caressing her hair, "Back, princess."

"Obviously." She grumbled, her sweat beads dampened her hair, the fair tendrils haloing her face and she felt dirty and grimy not having a bath yet, "can you check if my chemistry lab is ready." She started coughing terribly, held her hands to her stomach and chest.

"Shit, woman, those chems are gonna kill you someday if you don't stop!" His tone was angry, walking to the laboratory to check for her, "If there wasn't enough doctors in the wasteland to cure you, you'd have passed away for sure. I've seen these things happen to wasters out there. They asking for chems from me, and I tell them, I don't sell that crap."

"And you don't own me or tell me what to do!" She yelled at him, being as grumpy as ever, but he came back and held her tight, whispering how he had missed her, being out there out in the wastes, sleeping under the starless night, wishing she was with him instead of his brahmin pack and caravan guard.

"Not warm enough for you?" She said back, wiped her forehead, "Is it ready?" her eyes blinking back the pain.

"Come on, let's get you cured, then we'll have some loving." He grinned.

"No loving tonight, just hold me please." She said, her arms around his waist for support.

"Oh, so, we're just going to lie together with our clothes on." He sounded really disappointed.

"Yes, dumb ass. We are."

"You are the bitchiest bitch I've ever encountered, princess."

"Who are the others?" She eyed him angrily, "Some raider chick got you before me?"

"Don't get jealous, there were a few before you, but nothing so serious." He laughed, hauling her up. They pulled up in front of the chemistry lab and she hurried to detox herself, her perspiration drying up, and her throat felt better already.

"I think I love you, Wolfgang." She said, tears in her eyes, reaching up her hand to his face, his dark hair dusty from the road.

"We should get married then." He said, very seriously.

"Married huh? Who's gonna marry us? No one in this stupid Megaton town marries anyone, and the last remaining couple who are married are old! Nathan and some old lady who keeps asking me if her husband is around, when her wandering husband is just behind her."

"Rivet City has a priest." He said, quietly, "Everyone knows we're together, well, all the caravan guards and traders, even traders out in the waste. Crazy and his vault 101 girl."

"This is awful sudden, and not very romantic." She grumbled, "but hell, i'm not gonna do anyone else besides you, I'm no black widow."

Although she laughed, she was a black widow in many ways, her charm was high enough she could weasel her way out of anything by speech and a little persuasion. Promises of a sexy night to Mister Burke, which never came, and he still sends her those damned love letters. Dumb ass. He was as stupid as some of them, despite his shady cleverness.


	5. Chapter 5, buffouts and a companion

**Chapter four, Jet and Buffout**

**Enter Hannah and Yansir, from the West.**

**V.**

* * *

"Two stimpaks for you and three buffouts for me." The ghoul merchant said, his rotting appearance looked like moving slime and dead Brahmin meat in the hot sun. He smacked his lips together, though he didn't have any lips to begin with, but the two just looked at him with hesitation. The wastelanders weren't about to argue with a ghoul merchant who had a mission launcher on his back and two turrets aligned for the next aggressive target. They barely could get to the nearest town to find settlement, so what was three buffouts less?

The young wastelander named Hannah had only a sledgehammer and a .32 pistol she found on one of the dead bodies on the way to Megaton, her brother, Yansir, who was a foot shorter than her, and could pass as a midget packed a shotgun, wore a blastmaster helmet, and a flimsy Brahmin skin suit. He had the last stimpak on him, and a couple of dirty waters. If it got worse, there was always the river, and a lot of radiation. She hoped that the merchant had some radaway just in case.

"Do you happen to have any radout or radaway? I'd like some of the latter." She told him and as soon as she said that the ghoul merchant laughed.

"Girl, you are being funny aren't you? Me? A ghoul owning that stuff?" He harumped harshly and leaned over, "just giving you all a hard time, hehehehe, as a matter of fact, I do have some here in a case, just for smoothskins like you."

He reached over to the locker next to him and rummaged through a few items, producing a couple of radaways. "Here, whatcha gonna give me for them?"

She looked inside her backpack, there was barely anything left in there to trade. Just a few fancy lady snacks that she liked, and microfusion cells she found on the ground. She shrugged and pulled out the cells, "I've got these, no weapon for it, but are these okay to trade?"

"Sure is, missy, sure is." He grabbed them, replacing it with two radaways.

"Um, is this way to Megaton?" she pointed towards the direction up north.

"Yep. Why? You two wasters heading out there? Megaton's a good place to stay I hear but too crowded. Heard tell that there's plenty of wastelanders turned out because they have no room for settlers. You can visit they say and spend your caps, even spend the night or two, with caps of course, but you can't stay. You're better off somewhere else."

"Rivet city is too far."

"That's too bad. Yep it is, too far for anyone. Hell, Ghoul city underground is too far for me too, and a few of my brethren. We can't make it out there due to the infestation of super mutants and other creatures that bar our path. It's a lucky person to get through even with some broken ribs and bones."

"What sort of creatures are you talking about?" Hannah was curious, she'd only known the Yao guai and radscorpions, and the very rare occasional deathclaw. A few rogue robots in the wastelands and such; they usually could bypass those, by her expert in tech.

"Where are you two from?" the ghoul merchant asked, curiosity in his voice.

"We are originally from Little Lamplight, and I don't know if you've heard, but grownups in lamplight are not allowed so we are supposed to head to BigTown to settle. We heard it's also very dangerous to get there, so we tried to get to another route, not a very common one and my brother and I ended up in Girdershale. We spent two years in Girdershade and decided to pack up and leave.

The merchant rubbed his rotting chin, his eyes moving along the two, "Hmmm Girdershade, I never heard of it, it must be far off the map."

"It is, it really is." She sighed, remembering the past years spent there, farming and herding Brahmin, training a few yao guai as she was an expert and friendly with animals since birth. Mole rats that picked on the other children left her alone and she was always baffled what to do when the mole rats and the other kids fought. She simply did not understand why animals hated other humans.

"What's the population there, missy?" The merchant asked, intrigued, and slid her some extra rad-x for free. Her brother Yansir raised his brows, and silently shook his head, as he knew his sister had a "charm" about her that made others, ghoul or not want to spend time with her.

"Well the history of the place is kind of funny, you know, as there were only two residents and a single brahmin there, but after the couple married and had children, and the children grew, some stayed on, and the Brahmin grew…the farm and buildings started growing. It's still a small population but it's tripled its size since then. I'd say there were at least twenty of us there with a merchant shop and café. We didn't have many people coming by to sell or buy but we still managed well enough."

Yansir rolled his eyes and looked up at his sister, "Come on, are we gonna be here forever, it's gonna get dark soon."

"You might want to pack a little more fire power if you want to get to Megaton. Mole rats are the least of your problem, yao guai roam around there."

"No problem, I'm animal friendly with them."

"That's really good to know…does that mean if I accompany you two I wont get aggressive attacks from random animals?"

She laughed and they waited another hour for the ghoul merchant to close his shop tight and carry firearms and extra provisions for the three of them. They had found another companion on the road.

Yansir sighed and whispered over to his sister, "The more the merrier I guess. You and your charm. It's a good thing we didn't live in Rivet city or somewhere big, the opposite sex will have a field day with you."

Yansir's mention of how she affected boys and a few girls at times made her squirm and uncomfortable. It was just how she was born into. He was born into being short, however to make up for that, he was tough, he had a strength double hers. And that was very deceiving as most wouldn't believe him to be such a pack mule and brawny. She loved her brother, and smiled, feeling safer than she would have knowing that the ghoul merchant with the missile launcher was coming along.

Dusk was approaching and the sky was streaked orange and angry bright purple, it looked like a nuka cola quantum had clashed with a sunset drink. Their dusty shoes and boots traipsed over rocks and broken pieces of road.

"You have business in Megaton?" She asked the merchant, "oh you know my name and my brothers but we don't know yours."

"Edgar." He harumped harshly, throat sounded like he was always clearing it, fighting some kind of vicious angry virus in his lungs. "Let's just say I got business everywhere….say…" he said after awhile, "You need a better gun, and that sledgehammer is okay, but are you good with melee weapons?"

"Not really," she replied sheeplishly, embaressed that she even armed one on her back. She could probably do a good swing or two and she has had experience with fighting off the occasional radroach with a tire iron easily. " I'm holding it cause my brother's good with a shotgun and I've only got this little .32 pistol, needs more repair work but I tested it out earlier. It's okay."

Edgar pulled out a scoped magnum, fully repaired with a pack of ammo, and gave it to her, whispering croakily, "Keep it, as a gift of thanks for keeping an old ghoulish man like me company in the waste."

She smiled and gave her thanks. Yansir eyed the weapon and whistled, "Look it that, that's a beauty. Got any for me?" There was a joking tone in his voice but his sister knew he'd be happy if the merchant did give him something similar. His poor shotgun was worse for wear but it was better than nothing.

"Forget it, one customer at a time, shorty." He grumbled.

For being called shorty, Yansir was not even offended as the lamplighters used to call him shorty number two. He asked once why two and was given a history lesson that many years ago, before he was born there was a guy named Shorty who moved to BigTown. He's got to be middle aged by now, maybe in his forties. He had to have left to BigTown when he was sixteen like many others.

Yansir waved his hand away, "Yeah yeah whatever." And pulled his combat shotgun leisurely over his shoulder, the three of them walking away from the wasteland's sunset.

They stopped for campfire by some trainyard, there were plenty along the wasteland, and Hannah eagerly searched for ammo on the ground, finding some railway spikes and dart ammo.

While the three of them made a small fire, the merchant pulled out a small bed roll and some snacks out of his pack. "Anyone want something to eat, just say so, I've got a few potato chips and salsbury steaks."

Yansir's eyes lit up at the mention of steaks, "Yes! Please." He and the ghoul merchant sat together eating the snacks and drinking up the left over nuka colas.

Hannah was sure this was the way to Megaton as she pulled up the map. Before reaching to the merchant with his make shift shop and dangerous looking turrets placed strategically along his shop, they had visited another little place.

She was glad to be away from Andale, thought that her and her brother would stay there and find settlement. It was very strange how everyone looked, shiny and happy, so they had taken off. They were accompanied by two other wastelanders who had no association with them, but those two, a couple, male and female decided they were too tired to go further and find shelter at Andale. They were all pretty much dead staying there or leaving. The wasteland wasn't a very kind place to be. They had just passed by a big raider camp and luckily weren't noticed as there were radscorpions attacking the camp nearby to give distraction. The four of them had felt relief as they neared Andale, but it was Hannah who told her brother Yansir that she didn't feel right. Yansir usually never argued with her, as she usually was right about her suspicion. All right he told her, they'll leave as soon as they can, and told the two accompanying wastelanders. There was a brief argument but finally the siblings left the two strangers there.

"According to this map we're almost there, there should be a big mountain and Megaton sits atop some giant hill or something." She was eating the rest of her salsbury steak while checking the map. The light from the fire flickered along the trainyard's broken down trains, creating shadows and yellow shades and the darkened tracks below looked surprisingly built well.

"I know they're gonna send us out once we ask to settle there," Edgar grumbled, "So we have to lie and tell them we're only staying for a week to get some supplies and trade and spend some caps so they'll be happy and make no trouble for us."

"How are you planning on getting us to stay much longer?" Hannah was perplexed.

He scratched his rotting flesh, "Don't know yet, I was hoping one of you brainiacs would come up with something."

"Hey!" Yansir barked out, "why don't we just ask to work there? Find employment at one of the restaurants or bars or if they need help with repairs."

"You a repairman?" the ghoul perked up looking at the shorter man.

"Not really, I can do some repairs but my repair skills suck. Still, if they need someone like me, I can learn to be invested in better repair skills." Yansir never learned to hone his skills back in Girdershade, mostly spending his time helping build stronger fences around Girdershade against giant radscorpions, for those are usually rare but they do come along every so often, and left to tending to the Brahmin along with some of his friends there.

"We'll spend one night here," the ghoul said while rolled over on his side facing the wall, "but one of us has to do night watch duty. "I'm a tired old man, so maybe shorty there can do it."

"Yeah I get it, let me handle the creepy crawlers that go bump in the night." Her brother shrugged, arming his combat shotgun by his side, "but I'm taking the rest of your nuka cola, sis, cause I need it. If you got any sugar bombs, that'll help too."

"You know I don't." She smiled, "but I promise when we get to Megaton I'll personally ask for them and collect them all for you."

Hannah didn't have a bed roll like the ghoul, but instead pulled out the thin long sheet from out of the side of her sack, it was wedged and folded neatly and tucked securely, just in cases like these where there was absolutely no comfort. She was always used to a bed back in Girdershade and Yansir and her had their own little shack, with a double bunk bed. They had a kitchen and plenty of plates and even a table and chairs instead of some residents who had to sit up on stools to eat their meals over the counter. She kept their little shack as clean as she could but they knew they couldn't stay in Girdershade forever, it was a dead end there, with no pay. Yansir wanted to make some caps and told her that they'd do better if they were to head to BigTown or even better, Megaton or Rivet city.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six, the years have gone by, the new Megaton**

Hannah looked up over the hill, and saw a huge beacon like structure as black as the crows flying and circling around it, and she knew that there's a settlement there.

"I believe Megaton is up ahead."

The ghoul merchant huffed out, "Damn, it's good to get out of the wastes and find myself a good bar in Megaton, unload some of my junk and then hire a bed and sleep in it."

"What about our plans to settle? What are we gonna tell the residents there?"

He waved his scorched skinned hand away, passing her by and walking fast towards the hill, "Never you mind that, missy. We need supplies, good food and a good stiff drink. You and shorty can come up something while I drown myself in booze."

Edgar hefted his mission launcher over his shoulder as if it weighed a ton, and tugged the rest of his belongings which were in a big sack rolled on some rounded wheels to hold the weight more.

Yansir shrugged, "Let's go, it can't all be that bad."

When they approached Megaton, it was not how they were told it would look like, but then the residents who described them what Megaton would look like are approaching their late years and haven't been to this city in ages.

It was a large city and stretched across the rest of the hill, the long divider a material of fortified pre-war scrap airplane metals and rock and stone provided more of a boulder that helped give it structure and support. There was a robot by the entrance and two men at the top of the roof, snipers she figured, as they trotted two long rifles in their hands. One man looked down and saw them, telling them to get out of the wastes and come in, while the other man scanned the horizon for any trouble.

"See? It's a good thing I came with you smoothskins." Edgar cackled, "Can't be too sure about some of you folks, if I came alone, they might have taken a crack shot at me, for fun, but since you and shorty are with me, they figure I'm a 'friend' and companion." He laughed and shaked his head, "it's a bane being a ghoul in this world, but at least radiation heals me."

When the gates opened, it made a loud screeching sound, somewhat like the sound of the vault door opening. Soldiers came out from the front door, and some of them stopped to greet them, especially her.

The ghoul whispered over, "Megaton's been run over by some military faction. The men around don't see many good looking young women so I guess you're a real treat to them."

"You're flattering me." She blushed, not knowing why she blushed, but all the same, it was a nice thing to tell her that she was good looking. She didn't even know the first thing as to what looks factor in this world. Girdershade and Lamplight were all she had ever known, and lamplight was a world of small politics. Girdershade was quite a simplier life, no worries except for the occasional creature stumbling around its peripheral.

Inside, the hills extended, going to the marketplace was the center at the bottom of the hill, she could see the signs light up, blinking with words, "Clinic, The Brass Lantern, Megaton's water source, Moriarity's, The common room – free bed for one night, with purchase of water and food." There was a tale that there was a bomb in the middle of the city, but what looked like a bomb looked like the inside of a clothing store. Apparals of pre-war attires and a few armour suits and helmets for sale. The bomb had been cut open to make way for a door that led to some counters a couple of stools, dressers for the folded clothing and a couple of attendants who were putting some of the merchandise away.

"Yep, Megaton's changed over the years hasn't it?" Edgar tsked over at her, "Look at how humans can make something out of nothing."

"It's amazing!" Hannah was in awe of Megaton, she'd never been in such a city where it seemd that they were unaware of the dangers of the outside world.

"Don't get too cozy yet, missy."

"I don't know where to start." She exhaled, "Brass lantern? The common room for a place to sleep?"

A voice from behind her startled her, "Newcomers eh? Well, well, welcome to Megaton, mighty fine to get newcomers coming to trade, keeps the flow around here," he extended his hand, "the names Harden, Harden Simms."

The ghoul smirked and didn't extend his hand but Hannah did, taking the firm handshake, "I'm Hannah and this is my brother Yansir, and my travelling companion Edgar here."

Harden wore his father's sherrif's hat and duster, the star on his breast jacket giving him the shiny authority of law symbol. He was a little dumbstruck at the look of her, "I must say, you look like someone we all knew that resided in Megaton years ago." He shook his head, "Damn….like an exact replica."

"Oh? I have a twin?" Hannah was perplexed, "I'm sure you get a lot of visitors from the wastes, and plenty may look like me."

"Oh no, no, no way in hell, you, Hannah look like this woman that used to live here, don't know what happened to her….but she would be older than you by now, as I was just a kid when she lived here, and dad was still around."

Hannah took that as a deceased and apologized for the death of his father. Harden replied back with a small laugh and a scratch to the nape of his neck, while the ghoul merchant rolled his eyes and Yansir was getting distracted by the smell of cooking Brahmin over the fire pit.

"You're very kind, Hannah, unlike your "twin"." He laughed, "she was a crazy woman, let me tell you, did some crazy stuff when I was young, watched the whole thing unfold when she was here, and you're a hell of a lot mellower and kinder than she could ever be."


	7. Chapter 7

**_Chapter Seven: Slavers_**

The Brass Lantern has grown over the years, expanding room for more tables, chairs and bars for people to sit and enjoy their time there. There were even some dart boards hanging on the walls, with packages of darts to use by the counter. Free beer with six rounds of dart game played, which wasn't really a bad deal. It wasn't overly crowded at the Brass, and according to Harden who had pretty much given her the run over about the town was that Jenny Stahl ended up marrying some scavenger who came through town and hauled her off to live at Cantebury Commons.

They were sitting by the bar, the four of them, Harden chatting away as if he was glad there was a new visitor to talk to about anything and drinking sunset sarsaparilla which came by shipment via the NCR caravan troops.

"The world doesn't get over to the ass-end of the Wasteland does it?" Andy Stahl had joined into the conversation, going to and fro from table to table, he had grown older, a little more responsible and less crotchety in his middle years, but he was still Andy Stahl who riveled Moriarity in the days past.

"Yeah," Hannah laughed a little, drinking her sunset, savouring the taste of the flavour, and felt remarkable that some drinks contained no rads without the use of food sanitizers, "it has grown as a small little town but it still remains a very remote area where not many know about it. There's a lady there who still collects Nuka Cola Quantums, if you've ever heard of her, she said most people in the wastes should know her, but finding her was difficult. She had stopped due to pregnancy and children, as drinking so many Quantums was like drinking liquefied jet."

Andy nodded, "Yeah yeah, we don't sell those here, but got lots of nuka colas, and a hell of a lot of sunset sarsparillas. We get a shipment every month, by the Brahmin load, and truckloads, too." Andy looked over to the some of the customers hailing him from the other side of the restaurant, "Hey, you all enjoy your meal, gotta get back to work."

There was a group of men who didn't look like the Republic's soldiers but they look militarish nonetheless, wearing combat armour and armed with weapons. There wasn't any policy to leave the weapons at the front door as it was still a free wasteland, and the lawman sat with them, not really noticing anything out of the ordinary. He jabbered on, while eating some of his fancy lad snacks.

A couple of the men passed by Hannah's side of the table, "You do realize you're prime bait for slavers don't you?" The man wearing a pre-war hat and tortoiseshell glasses whispered over to her, "Watch yourself around Megaton, there's slavers about, girl." And he headed out the door. She nearly recoiled at the thought. She had heard about the cruel stories back in lamplight and how some of the children there had been enslaved years ago, and some never returned. The gates to lamplight had grown stronger and fortified with extra yao guais and the more trained and skilled children who could fight were at the front lines, to keep slavers from infiltrating the caves. Slavers didn't go too far out to Girdershade though.

Yansir leaned over to his sister, "What the hell was that all about?"

"Nothing, just a friendly warning."

The ghoul merchant sat further away from Hannah but his beady eyes didn't miss anything, "Slavers huh? Yeah…." He picked up the pack of cigarettes from the table, noting that everyone had finished eating except for Harden but he didn't pay no mind to him. Edgar placed a stick in his bony mouth and lit it up, smoke furling from the ends.

"You know?" Hannah seemed to realise that Edgar knew a lot about the wasteland, "the man said they are here, but they wouldn't deliberately outright take anyone in front of every Megaton citizen here would they, or in front of the law?" She motioned over to Harden.

The sheriff stopped chewing his food, "Wha-? What'd I miss? Did someone say slavers?" He picked up the his napkin and wiped his mouth, "Pfffawwww, we have a deal with the slavers here that they aren't to cause any trouble or pick out any resident of Megaton while they are able to trade and have a place to rest and eat here."

Harden then looked quietly at Hannah, "I'm afraid they do like young women who are particularly pretty, and I'm going to make sure they don't get any ideas, so you are as of today, a citizen of Megaton."

Yansir nearly spit out his coffee, "What the? Are you serious, sheriff? We get to stay in Megaton just like that?" He beamed over to his surprised sister.

"Now hold on there, shorty, I only said your sister here, as like a diplomat immunity that I'm granting her, that doesn't extend out to any family members or strange friends she may have strung along," Harden said the last bit that while eyeing the ghoul merchant.

"What the hell is that all about." Yansir yelped out angrily, "I'm her protector as well as her brother."

Hannah shushed her brother, and quietly addressed the sheriff, "I'm thankful that you are able to get me citizenship in such a short time, but please, my brother is also a part of me too."

Harden grumbled, "well, sorry I can't do anything about it, the town has grown yes, and I don't even have a house for Hannah, I was going to provide the other room for her in my house as my house is too big for me and it'd be nice to have someone there to share the home with." He looked over at Yansir, "but you're welcome anytime."

"What the fuck!" Yansir and the ghoul both yelped, and eyed eachother quickly, knowing what this "free room and board" meant. Edgar grabbed hold of Harden's duster lapels grasping it in his skeletal hand, "You mean you want her to be your prostitute."

Now it was Hannah's turn to make a yelp, her mouth hung open, "What?

Her hand was itching to slap the Sheriff´s face for even suggesting it but Harden was perplexed at the insinuation, his face in horrified irony, `No no no no…it´s not like that at all. I was being very generous of course, and she be not touched at all. I´m of a different persuasion if you know what I mean!`


	8. Chapter 8

Harden looked like he was about to blow his top, his face reddened, and for effect, he slammed his napkin down the table, "I swear, I have never seen a couple of hombres like you two ASSuming I'm going to take advantage of this innocent girl here."

Hannah was about to intervene, because innocent doesn't sound too appealing but closed her mouth – she didn't really get out much, and before Girdershade, lamplighters used to call her the goody goody girl of the cave. Next to being the animal friendly freak she had grown up to be, she supposed. Whenever she had heard of slavers and terrible things in the wastes, she had this terrible gut feeling inside of her, as if she didn't understand why and what, and what irked her the most was that she had wasted her time as a little lamplighter being the assistant nurse to the main medic there. She never learned how to shoot well, or even used a melee weapon properly, for goodness sakes. She had been taking note of how her brother was able to be a good defender for her, and the strength of his constitution and skill had helped her get by. In return, she had taken care of him with good meals she could conjure up back in Girdershade, helped patch up bruises, cuts and even open wounds for him. They were a good team. But now, coming to Megaton had made her realise how utterly helpless she was. They have a good doctor here in the city, and perhaps plenty others, not to mention she had seen some of the women, even the very old women carry weapons and she was highly suspicious that they could really use it well too.

"Oh shut up!" grumbled the ghoul merchant, now relaxed and puffing on his cigarette, "what do you expect? Offering the girl free room and board and she hadn't even done anything to benefit it. She didn't save the town from a pack of deathclaws, or from a bomb or anything."

Harden made a loud clearing noise in his throat, "Like I said, I wasn't offering a house, there's little to offer here as the city's grown as big as Rivet city, maybe even bigger, I was merely being a good citizen and don't forget generous!" He made a puffed up gesture by extending his chest and straightening out his shoulders.

"Hey," Yansir had this curious look on his face, "You said you are of a different persuasion? Um, you mean you go for guys? Cause this guy isn't interested just in case and I go for girls by the way. So back off k?"

"Again, the assumption." Harden rolled his eyes, "I wouldn't go for a shorty like you if I were that type, and what I mean is, I can't have sex."

Now they were all looking at eachother awkwardly. But Harden had no shame, so continued on, without lowering his voice, "It's no secret here in Megaton, as there are some blabbermouths around here, plus DocChurch who is supposed to be retired but won't retire likes to give out everyone's information."

"Eww, the doc around here doesn't keep secrets? That's crazy. Thanks for the heads up, I sure won't tell him about my constipation problems." Edgar said in a joking manner, and put out the cigarette on his dinner plate. Harden eyed his gesture and rolled his eyes. "What?" said Edgar, "you got a problem with my table manners?"

"Ghouls…"the sheriff only replied with a shake of his head.

"if you're gonna start with that, you and me are gonna have problems."

"And might I remind you, that I'm the sherriff of this town?"

Hannah intervened, "He has a point, Edgar, there's no need to be rude…well at least not around him."

"Ah shit, you not going to be defending him are you, now that you've got a place to live here in Megaton?" Edgar was looking perplexed and angry, "aw what the hell. Why'd I even join up with you two anyway. I spend some days with you two and here I am sitting with a fussy poofy sheriff."

Harden stood up, pushed his chair back and pulled out some caps to pay for the meals and drinks, "Come on, you'll want to see your new room, Hannah."

"Wait…" Hannah looked over at her brother, "What about my brother?"

"He can sleep on the couch, I have a couch downstairs, or if he wants we can grab one of the mattresses from the common room and he can sleep on the floor of your room. It's a small room though, so I suggest he may have to make do on the couch."

"It's okay, sis, the couch is fine."

"Hello?" Edgar interrupted, "am I just the third wheel here?" he had already started on the second cigarette, clearly agitated, "or am I just the token ghoul around here?"

"We have the common rooms for extra space if you want to stay there and have not enough caps," Harden said in a calm voice, "However, mind you, you cannot stay more than a week here, if you don't have business to do."

Hannah heaved a sigh, "there must be some other way for Edgar to stay longer. Can he not stay in your house as well, like you offered my brother here."

"Listen, you two are asking a lot out of me, I'm already extending my generosity further by allowing your brother to stay, granted without a room, but this? No, no, I cannot. You may however, ask some of the residents, they have a few houses here that are empty which they own and plus some of the people do need companions."

"There you go, Edgar," Hannah said brightly, "we can start with that."

Edgar didn't move from his place, "You go along, I'm gonna have some whiskey, I can't take the sheriff's company much more than I already am doing." He waved his macabre hand away.

Hannah was about to say something but saw his expression and followed Harden and Yansir out the door.

...

* * *

**_Lone wanderer, 2277_**

* * *

"Fuck fuck fuckity fuck fuck fuck!" The lone wanderer's litany of curses were as long as her bright strands of hair, which were being burnt by the torcher's weapon, encasing her in fire, and blindingly, she shoved out a fist, where her spiked knuckles made contact with the torcher's chin. She managed to catapult him into the wall, denting the panels and causing the rubble to fall helplessly on him. She buried him there, then hurriedly reached up to see if most of her hair were intact.

"Goddamn fucking raiders." She murmured indelicately, gritting her teeth, and then the pain seared through her, causing her to fall to the ground, "Oh god, help!" her hands reached out to get support, and suddenly Sargeant was there, pulling her up.

Dogmeat and Charon had been busy fighting the rest of the raiders downstairs. The entire place was packed with raiders, fully armed. Sargeant was frantic, "Madame! You need medical help now!" He had gotten influenced by spending a lot of time with Wadsworth from the sound of it. She was hauled up delicately by the metallic arms of R-13, and he was yelling out, "May god sort them out, ma'am, they're going to get theirs!"

They had managed to get out of the ramshacked house that was abandoned, most of the raiders were dead, but they knew that there were more coming. The place had plenty of beds and plenty of supplies. And all the Lone wanderer could think of was if they had managed to get the supplies and haul it out. Charon's shotgun sounded off with a series of loud bangs, the last of them leaving the place, and dogmeat crippled, still growling at the last of the remaining injured raiders.

"You want some of this?!" yelled Charon, loosening up the last trigger, and the enemy's body blew up in pieces, splattering blood and flesh against the walls. Sydney running behind the rest of them with her submachine gun making rays of bullets to the last of them; her face smeared with the raider's blood, her suit blackened by the rubble and dirt, the fight and sweat, and she yelled out satisfied, "that takes care of that!"

The five of them, limping and needing stimpaks made it out of there alive, walking away from the destruction. Sydney yelling out, her face happy, "we even got a bunch of nuka colas from that hellhole!"

So, after a day or two, the Lone wanderer was back again on her back at the Megaton house she got for a reward, her body ached, and she was missing several strands of hair from the looks of it. A couple of stimpaks and radaway helped soothe the pain.

Crazy Wolfgang was already on his way to visit her, with gifts of junk to unload at her feet. He was happy to see her alive and well, "Hey hey hey, how's my favourite customer?"

"Yeah, you're a real romantic, Wolfgang." She reached over to grab a cigarette by her bed, "get me a fire, baby."

"Those things will kill you, princess. 'Sides, you're pregnant now, you can't smoke too much."

"You're killing me with your bad comebacks, honey." She rolled her eyes, besides my back is killing me, this pregnancy is just not for me, carrying your brat is going to be the undoing of me, wolf."

He clearly looked distressed, and sat at her bedside, "Princess, I wish I could stay here with you in Megaton but duty and work calls, if only there was a way I could find some time to help you through your pregnancy."

"You're the one that got me knocked up, luckily I'm not too far big yet, I can still fight and travel." She hefted her body up, her hand over the small bump, and despite herself, caressed it softly, I almost burned myself today you know."

Wolfgang took off his combat suit, revealing his shirt which looked quite nice along his muscled tone body, and the lone wanderer was itching to pull him down and make more babies with him if she could, but instead, found a stick of wood and scraped it quickly over the side of her bed and lit up her cigarette, "did you hear me?" she started puffing, smoke furling over their heads.

"Yeah I did, I was just going to say that maybe you shouldn't go out and do any more quests you know. You were supposed to go find your father but you gave up on that. Are you not worried about him?"

She shrugged, her shoulders leaned over on him, "naw, not really, he left me to fend for myself when I got out of the vault, and plus we never really got along when we were in the vault not after my 12th birthday, we were always fighting or we just never saw things eye to eye."

"You said that he was or that your parents – your mother too, were scientists and they were planning on getting pure fresh water for the wasteland, you know, that would be something if they could do that. You came from a very special family, princess."

"What? Cause my parents were determined, smart and knew how to think up ways for a big purifier to keep the human race from falling apart?" she rolled her eyes, "big deal, they lacked in parenting skills, how the hell am I supposed to take care of our baby when you're out looking for stupid junk, and you could get killed by some deathclaw or worse?"

"I have a plan, princess, a plan for the three of us to have everything we want, plus I still get to sell and travel and have my junk, we can live in Cantebury commons, and the other merchants and I have plans to make the roads safer somehow….along with Roe, we're thinking of ways to find a better route."

"Your routes from Cantebury commons to Andale and to Evergreen Mills are all deathtraps. Not to mention that goddamn Arefu, with the townsfolk not smart enough to move away from the broken down freeway, they're about to fall down to the mirelurks and if that don't kill them, stupidity will."

"Princess, you're so mean," he shook his head, and reached out with a gentle hand over her hair, pulling away the bright strands that threaten to hide her eyes, "you know as well as I that people have no choice in the wastes, and if you have known all your life to live in the situation you're in, there's nothing else, just survival, that's all."

"that's what I love about you, Wolfgang, you're so fucking philosophical, now, shut your mouth and take the rest of your clothes off, so you can make your sexy junkman's way with me, and devour my body while it's still sexy."

They both laughed and he pulled her down, but not before he took the cigarette away from her fingers and snuffed it out.

The bed creaked as their bodies adjusted, their clothes now scattered on the floor, and the lone wanderer's dirty pre-war parkstroller's dress she wore for wolfgang fell on top of Dogmeat's head, obscuring the animal's view; he whimpered and the travelling salesman got up quickly and told the dog to go outside, shutting the door to the bedroom.

Dogmeat whined at first, upset that he was shut out of his owner's room, then his sad eyes looked away, trying to find a comfortable spot to lay his body down, and Wadsworth scolded him not to get the floor dirty.

Dogmeat growled. Wadsworth and the dog eyed eachother as if they were going to do a showdown, then the maintainance robot turned away, grumbling how messy the place was. Dogmeat curled into a comfortable position, not caring in the world if his mistress made loud moaning sounds from the other room. He was getting used to this stuff when that engine smelling junksman came to visit.


	9. short POV from crazy's caravan guard

Wolfgang's caravan guard shook his head at his employer's long hours at Megaton, finishing off the last of the beer he had purchased over at Moriarity's. He waited with the Brahmin for awhile and checked to see if all the contents were all secured and packed up. They had finished trading what was left to trade, and surprisingly many were in dire need of scrap metals and fission batteries they had found along the outskirts of D.C.

He didn't really have a name, but he liked to be called "Joe," Wolfgang's burly caravan guard who packed a Chinese assault rifle, a couple of grenades and was given a mission launcher for long distance enemies.

When Wolfgang came back, it was dark, and Joe was surprised at the return, "thought you'd be staying in tonight and we'd be heading out tomorrow morning, like we always do."

"She's angry right now, very moody and upset," he said back, Wolfgang's brows knitted, looking very concerned, "might as well head out and come back in a few days."

"Allright up to you, by the way, Crazy, why do you always put up with her? You've never done that with any woman on the road before her, you really love this woman from the vault?"

Wolfgang looked at his guard as if he had grown two heads, "What the hell? You didn't notice how long I spend my time here, when my first love for years was the road and the junk that I sell?"

Joe heaved a sigh, "don't forget, your pack Brahmin too. Sorry it's just that I've seen you with girls before and this one, this one treats you bad."

Wolfgang patted the brahmin's side gently, "yeah, she's a bad girl, ain't she? Unlike my Brahmin girl, who doesn't fret and carries all my junk with no complaints." His Brahmin made a satisfied grunt and grumbling noise as she chewed.

The junk salesman shrugged, smiling secretly, "she doesn't treat me bad when she's loving me though. Well,_ a little._" He reached over to his aching, sore back from the severe scratch marks his princess had made on his back awhile ago, and the vise-grip way she clung her legs around his waist.

Joe, the caravan guard shook his head in silence, knowing for the years he has spent as his bodyguard and armed henchman, that Wolfgang had always fallen for bad girls, from the soft spoken crazy, murdering raider girl at Evergreen Mills to the maniacal, but brilliant doctor over at the Red Racer factory, and they all died somehow, from something very bad too. But those women worshipped Wolfgang, from his body to the junk he sold. He seriously thought about changing his occupation if the women were coming in droves to junk salesmen, but then he remembered how they were bad girls and glad that he was safe as a nobody caravan guard who had the strength of a super mutant brute, even master if he honed his skills furthur.

If Joe had a choice, he wanted a good girl, who would wait for him after his gruelling work along the caravan route. He heaved another long sigh, knowing that that life was impossible. No decent woman wanted to marry a caravan guard whose future is death at the end of the road. The bad girls scared him; he didn't want to die with a knife to his throat, slit open one morning after a hot night of fantastic sex for he automatically assumed that bad girls were uninhibited and went all wild and crazy in bed. It was the unstable nature of theirs that made him squirm and know fear. How Crazy Wolfgang liked that shit was beyond him.

But now this vault girl from some very protected place, who came out like a scourge of the wasteland, and tittered precariously from neutral to bad girl, bordering the evils of a raider herself. She hated the raiders though, and hated just about the human race from the looks of it, not wanting to find her father who could very well save them from turning all into ghouls or dead.

Joe didn't say a damn thing, just did his job and that was to protect his boss and the goods, and damn it all, he sighed inwardly, if only wolfgang would hire another guard because the roads did take a toll on him, what with all the stray super mutants and the hoards of raiders, to the small irritating bloatflies and the rogue robots that happened along the way, he wished for a hot, karmically good female caravan guard too. With long chats along the lonely road, and fighting side by side. Maybe when he asked for a raise, he'll ask for a hot looking caravan guard, then he silently smiled at the thought.

But his fantasy came to an end as Wolfgang hit him on the back, "hey! Wake up, you're fantasizing again. Got to stay awake for the road ahead."

"Can't a guy fantasize?" Joe grumbled, packed up his stuff and followed Wolfgang and the pack Brahmin.


	10. Chapter 10,it's getting worse

**Talon Mercs, Chapter 10**

* * *

"Heehehehe, you lose." giggled the man in black combat suit, throwing down the last of the cards, "I win. That means you owe me a bunch of caps." He pointed to the other man in similar uniform. There were three of them sitting around the table playing cards, a pile of caps atop the table with three cups of coffee. The sound of the coffee maker and their guffaws were the only sounds around the small encampment that was their home office. Two bunkbeds along the wall, next to two lockers and a dresser cabinet which was home to a few ammo and laser rifles.

"Shit, I am out of caps now," the other man said frustratingly, "I'm quitting, and I won't even get paid till the next contract is filled."

The talon mercenary who giggled, started to pull the caps towards him in greedy satisfaction, "That's the breaks." He then lit up a match to light his cigarette, "What about that vault girl we're supposed to kill? We never found her, you know. She won't be much caps but it'll be something right?"

"Naw, she used to be a thousand caps but now, the boss doesn't care if you haul her in or not, her price has gone down to two hundred caps." The other man said, taking the pack of cards and putting them away. He got up and poured himself another cup of coffee, "sides, she's more competition than anything. Many months ago she was just a neutral goody goody, but now she's becoming more of a thorn on our sides, taking jobs that we're supposed to be taking."

"Isn't that all the more reason why the commander should up the ante on the caps on that girl? She's a menace to the wastes, taking everyone's job, by killing those contracts which were made for us."

"True, but hey I don't make the contracts, I just go out and find and kill." They all laughed at that, then suddenly they heard a noise outside.

"Shhh what the hell was that?" The merc standing up with the coffee cup said, his eyes alert to the door.

"Someone's here." The others whispered, both started to arm themselves, their weapons ready to strike.

**-The breakdown of the Lone Wanderer-**

* * *

"Time to die!"

She was flying high, the feeling of the drug coursing through her, coupled with the rush of adrenalin she felt when she was fighting. That ultrajet she had purchased from that oddly shaped ghoul back in some strange metro station, which wasn't even functioning as anything but a shelter gave her an extra boost. Her eyes glazed over as the rush filled her with ultimate dizzying pleasure, and her bloodied hands fisted, curling up and had found a chin to break, her knee lifted to make the connection to his jaw, cracking the bones, and she laughed like a little girl.

Sydney shook her head when she saw the devastation of her friend's display after marauding the Talon mercenaries offices. Granted, there were only three talon mercenaries here, hidden away in some home headquarters, from the rest of the wasteland, close to Grayditch and in between some sewers.

The talon men lay on the floor, two dead and one was in severe pain, blood came out of his mouth, and the lone wanderer wondered why she was enjoying the pain he was experiencing. She should put him out of his misery, but then the pain in her stomach started again, and Sydney came up from behind her, pulled her friend away, and shot the mercenary dead.

"What the hell was that?" the wanderer screamed out, "I was having fun with him."

"You stop it this instant!" Sydney reprimanded, "If Crazy isn't here or too cowardly to take care of you, then I'll have to tell you myself that you're taking this jet addiction too much and becoming slowly like those horrid raiders that you so hate. They love raping, pillaging and torturing! And today as I stand there watching you take apart these men, playing with this last one, breaking him in pieces, you were on the verge on the same line as torturing….and what's next? Raping?"

The lone wanderer laughed, "that's disgusting. I hate that shit, I'd hate it if some mercenary tried to rape me or any man or anything, and you dare believe I'd go that far?"

"You're not that far off, my friend." Sydney said quietly, her head down.

"What do you know?!" her friend retorted back, angry that she was being scoulded for something like that, "They're stupid ass mercs who would kill and torture you in return, and you dare judge me for returning the favour to them?"

"Talon mercs don't torture, they just get the job done, murder and get the caps."

"But they kill innocent women and children, old people, babies, whatever! They have no care!" The lone wanderer was now pacing back and forth, the ultrajet she had taken was zinging through her body like a firecracker and the effects were wearing off. She wanted to take some more, find more mercs and kill them all, or raid a campful of super mutants and destroy them.

"Yes, but they don't rape and torture, at least that's not their policy, that's more raider style!" Sydney argued back, shaking her head, "Ah hell what do I know! I just don't like seeing you this way."

"All of a sudden you're concern for me."

"you're addicted, girl, _addicted_, and if you don't stop, you may end up dead, along with your baby."

"I never wanted this baby." The lone wanderer confessed, "I just didn't prepare, because I'm stupid, and horny for that dumb ass caravan trader. My hormones got the best of me, Sydney." Then she got down on her knees, her head down and started to put her blooded hands over her face, "God, I'm a fucking mess. I can't take care of this baby."

Sydney was shocked; the look on her vault friend's face where tears were falling, the dark smudges of black chalk mascara smearing on her pale cheeks.

"Sweetie, it's not the end of the world. You'll be allright if you change."

The Lone wanderer nodded, through tear covered eyes, "Yes, yes yes," she gulped, "I want to change so badly….I want to stop this addiction."

"You'll be okay…" Sydney whispered, reaching out a hand to help her friend get up, "Come on, let's get you to doc church, maybe he has something that will help you long term."

* * *

**-Doctor, this is a threat-**

"You don't look dead, and you don't have broken bones…" Doc Church said, eyeing her up and down.

"Shut the hell up and cure me." The lone wanderer didn't have time for his nonsense, itching to get out her combat knife and threaten him with a fist punch, but goddamnit all, she didn't want to be the bully of Megaton, which was what she was turning into. So much for being all sweet and innocent. She was once the pretty looking sweet belle from the vault bordering between neutral and good, indeed naïve to the world outside the wastes, but all that changed, so very fast.

"You don't need to be so rude, young lady." He flustered, annoyed that no one in Megaton really even gives him the full respect he so believes he deserves; why, if it weren't for him, these residents would be dead or worse.

"And you don't have to be such a crankity old fart either." She gritted her teeth and sat herself down on one of his patient beds, "Now cure me."

"You mean your addiction?" His grizly grey brows rose up in surprise.

Sydney made a clearing throat noise, and exhaled loudly, "Listen, doc, if there's anyway she can get help by curing her addiction, I mean, not just these temporary addictions but a permanent one…"

Now the doc looked even more flustered and irritated at their obvious stupidity, "You can't cure an addiction permanently. That's just simply not possible. The only way is to _never_ take these chems, and I mean NEVER; that's the only permanent solution."

The lone wanderer looked at Sydney, "See? It's full of shit around here, and stinks, too, just like the doc."

"Young lady, I've just had enough of your foul mouth." He shook his head, "this is my office and I'll have none of …"

Then he was being hauled up against the wall, with his throat squeezed, his eyes widened at the pain and how he was being abused by this slip of a vault girl, "oooowwwww!" he cried out, "stop stop!"

"Listen, you shut the hell up about my so-called foul mouth, and anything else your naughty greedy eyes seem to look at, your job here is to cure us, and not go around belittling the crap out of us."

He squeezed his eyes shut, tears coming out from the sides, "Allright, allright! Try Doctor Preston or the doctor in Paradise falls, they may have something I am not able to provide here….now please," he coughed and choked, "release me."

Sydney shook her head at her friend's unstable antics, "There's no reason for the doc's mistreatment, he's no help so let's get out of here."

The Lone Wanderer looked like hell, with her dark smudged eyes lined with blackened chalk, making her blue-green eyes contrast greatly against her pale skin and the dark colours. Her hair was a mess, no longer was she trimmed and neat looking but was bordering on a raider girl's war-like appearance. Save for the fact that she still kept clean, there was no trace of raider in her.


	11. Chapter 11

The Lone Wanderer had a name but she didn't tell anyone her real name, because it never mattered to anyone. She was brushing her bright hair before the mirror, scraped off the dirt that was there and yelled out to Wadsworth who was floating about around the Megaton house, "You're a fucking terrible housekeeper you know that, wadsworth? You need to be called for what it's worth, not a fucking thing!"

"Madame," He fretted, "I must say, it is awfully unkind of you to say, for I have relentlessly kept this place up while you and your companions come and go as you please, leaving your dirty boots tramping about, and such," then stopped fretting as he heard the growl of Dogmeat behind him.

"And further more, this dog," he spluttered helplessly, his circuits almost on the verge of obvious static, "he is threatening to take one of my arms apart any minute. It does my nerves to no good."

She looked down at her loyal four legged companion, shaking her finger at him, "dogmeat, bad boy, don't treat wadsworth like that. Only I get to."

Her loyal dog whined and the sad eyes looked about, but forgot all about it when his mistress set down a dog bowl filled with Brahmin steak, "now eat up, you precious thing, you can be mean to him when I'm not around." She grinned, patting and rubbing the dog generously.

Dogmeat happily barked, he loved his mistress so obviously, even more so than his previous master who was very good to him. His mistress smelled good, too, and he hated it when that caravan trader came and made his owner smell like a greasy perfume.

"Good boy, ohhh you very good boy," she said in a cooing soft voice, rubbing her hands over his dog ears, petting him gently, "love you too, Dogmeat, you're the very best dog in the whole wide word." She bent down and snuggled her nose to his wet one, and dogmeat put out a tongue and licked her nose. He barked happily again, tail wagging.

She laughed, and the maintenance robot nearly wanted to put up his hands in frustration, floating away from the room and went up to hide upstairs.

Later, Sydney came back with some nuka colas and potato chips, "hungry? Got some snacks here for us."

"I'm on a diet." The wanderer joked back, and Sydney just laughed, because it was far from the truth, if anything, the wanderer needed some more meat on her. Sure, she was more well-endowed topside, with a generous chest. Sydney became kind of depressed, looking down at hers, which weren't flat or anything but if she compared, it made her such a typical woman, feeling all insecure like that.

The wanderer saw where Sydney's eyes were at, "Are you comparing your chest to mine again?" she rolled her eyes, "Trust me, I've seen bigger, and I don't want them bigger, they'll sag and be a pain in the butt when I'm trying to fight."

"Yeah I know, you bind your breasts, flattening them so they won't get in the way." Sydney said nonchalantly, sitting down on the couch and setting the nuka colas down, "let me tell you, if I were a lesbian, I'd so do you, girl."

"And if I were one, you're my second choice." The wanderer retorted back, winking.

"Second?" Sydney stopped eating the chips, "Who is the first? Oh wait…Jenny Stahl? Lucy West?" then she made a sour face, "Not those old hags, Old mother Maya or Nathan's aging wife?"

"God, hell to the no on all counts. Well, Jenny's kind of cute in a business like way, and Lucy is just, no, just no. Something weird of that girl. Gives me the creeps."

"Who then?"

"Myself, of course."

"Um, that's more narcissism, and just masturbating with yourself."

"If Crazy Wolfgang wasn't such a good fuck, I'd do myself every night." The wanderer said openly and unashamedly, giving her friend another naughty wink.

Sydney spit out her nuka cola, "girl, you are so _very very bad_."

They both laughed. Then Sydney was quiet all of a sudden, realizing that she's been a very lonely woman without a lover to keep her warm. She heavily sighed, glancing over at her vault 101 friend, then three dog's voice came on the radio, blabbering about how the chick from vault 101 was the scourge of the wasteland. Then a second later, mentioned how she had rescued people from the raiders, and even found children a new place to live, "Nice work, 101!" he had praised.

**-the serious talk-**

Wolfgang came back a few days later, a few stimpaks less, for he and his caravan guard were met up with a gang of super mutants right outside D.C, and they had to fight their way through. His Brahmin was limping and Wolfgang managed to give the ole' girl some stimpaks and his caravan guard's Chinese assault rifle was broken and needed repairing.

He brought back a bag of gifts, mostly crap of course, but he was beaming with pride when he pulled out the toy cars, the home made dart guns he created at some power station they stopped by. There were a few other items that was looked over by the Lone Wanderer and she just threw them on the floor, "this is just all stupid junk, Crazy!"

"It_ IS_ junk, princess."

Then she started crying, her hands over her face. The caravan trader became very concerned, his brows knitted together in true worry, "Baby baby, sweetheart," he pulled her over to him, "don't cry, I'm here now," He had smoothed his engine-dry greased gloved hands over her bright hair, pulling the strands aside, "It's probably just you acting up with hormones what with the baby and all."

"I hate you."

"No you don't, you _want me_, I can tell when you look at me." He grinned, his hands now over her neck and shoulders, "god I've missed you, I was thinking of you the whole time I was out there."

"I killed some talon mercs," was all she blurted out, "me and Sydney tracked them down and I just tortured them."

The confession came as a surprise to him, but shrugged, "Those guys deserve it." He nodded, "I've come across them before, they usually don't bother with caravan traders but they're not above killing us just for the hell of it. They're not that far off from raiders."

"I want to talk serious stuff, Crazy.." She said with a serious expression, stopped his hand from caressing her, "about this baby.."

"What do you want to talk about, hmmm?" He said, while breathing against her ears and obviously geared up to take her anytime, he then grabbed one of her hands to set it on his groin, visibly very much ready, "I'm all yours, princess."

She cleared her throat and wished he wouldn't do that, because it distracted her from wanting to make serious talk.

"Oh fuck it." Then pushed him down on the bed, "You're soooo going to get it good."

"Is that a threat? I love threats from you, baby." He grinned, his palms up and arms out, "heal me, princess."

"Just don't talk. Don't. You suck at everything but this….…." she said, while nibbling on his ear, slowly moving her lips along his neck, then reaching to his mouth, putting out a soft tongue to his lips, capturing them and her mouth opened to take his.


End file.
